For years, doctors in the know have warned their patients about the causes of chronic inflammation like smoking, environmental toxins, and processed foods.
But newest research I’ve been looking at suggests that short telomeres are the ultimate trigger for inflammation, which is the real culprit behind heart disease, diabetes and even Alzheimer’s.
I’ve talked to you about telomeres before. But the reason I keep mentioning them is that telomeres are the basic clocks that tell your body how old your cells are. And everything that happens from the time you are born is dependent on how old the telomere tells your body to act.
Think about it… you have the same genes your entire life. So why do you appear and behave differently at 55 years old than you did when you were 5? The answer is that the telomere has changed, and it’s telling your body to transcribe a different set of genes.
And get this … we’ve discovered how to control that process and I’m going to show you exactly how to do it. So now, by maintaining the length of your telomeres, you can reverse inflammation and prevent those chronic diseases.
A new, compelling study from the University of California at San Francisco gives us clear evidence that telomere length is the key. It determines your risk and severity of the disease of inflammation.
Researchers looked at 1,962 healthy men and women between the ages of 70 and 79. Those with short telomeres had high levels of two pro-inflammatory factors interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a). 1
Both IL-6 and TNF-a are known as cytokines, a group of compounds that cause chronic inflammation.
But cytokines play another harmful role in your body … TNF-a blocks telomerase, the enzyme that rebuilds your telomeres.2,3
It’s like a double hit to your body. First, your tissues become inflamed. Then, your telomeres get shorter, making your cells older and weaker.
This creates a breeding ground for diseases… including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),4 atherosclerosis, and high blood pressure5,6 … even heart attacks.7
So what can you do to reverse this process, douse inflammation, and dramatically reduce your chances of disease?
Well, what if I told you there were a drug that dramatically reduced the risk of heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and inflammation? That it reduces the risk of all cancers by 77 percent?8 And that it lengthens your telomeres?
There is such a thing, but it’s not a drug. It’s vitamin D.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study that looked at more than 2,000 women of all ages. The more vitamin D they had in their bodies, the longer their telomeres were. On top of that, people who supplemented with vitamin D had longer telomeres than those who didn’t.9
Why do people who have high levels of vitamin D have longer telomeres?
Because vitamin D activates telomerase. One study divided people into two groups and measured their vitamin D levels. Then researchers randomly assigned the people to either get a placebo or the equivalent of 2,000 IU of vitamin D a day.
After only 4 months, those taking vitamin D had their telomerase activity skyrocket by 19.2%.10 Those taking a dummy pill had no change in telomerase activity.
Vitamin D also destroys a vicious free radical called the superoxide anion that causes inflammation.11
Vitamin D repairs DNA damage, stops inflammation and helps to “turn on” genes which promote healthy tissue, and “turn off” genes that promote disease.
For the most part, vitamin D is completely free. Just go outside and spend 10-20 minutes in the sunshine and your skin will synthesize 10,000 to 50,000 IU of vitamin D.
Trouble is, doctors have people scared to death of the sunshine.
Making things worse, it’s not so easy to get enough sunshine in the winter, or in the far northern or southern hemispheres. That’s why I recommend you supplement with at least 5,000 IU of vitamin D every day.
The two best ways to supplement Vitamin D are to:
1. Eat foods with high vitamin D. The best sources are small fish like herring, sardines, and anchovies. Be aware of how much of the larger fish you eat because they can have quite a bit of mercury.
2. Take some cod liver oil. Besides sunlight, the best natural source of vitamin D is cod liver oil. Just two teaspoons full contain almost 3,000 IU of vitamin D.
A quality vitamin D supplement from a capsule, caplet or from liquid drops is your next choice for protecting against inflammation, but make sure it’s in the right form.
What makes a good form of vitamin D? The D3 form, which is the bioactive kind of vitamin D. But don’t rely on your multivitamin to give you all the vitamin D you need, even if it does have D3. It’s a good start, but most still only have around 400 IU.
1. O’Donovan A, et. al. “Cumulative Inflammatory Load Is Associated with Short Leukocyte Telomere Length in the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study.” PLoS One. 2011; 6(5): e19687.
2.Beyne-Rauzy O, Recher C, Dastugue N, Demur C, Pottier G, et al. “Tumor necrosis factor alpha induces senescence and chromosomal instability in human leukemic cells.” Oncogene 23: 7507-7516, 2004.
3. Beyne-Rauzy O, Prade-Houdellier N, Demur C, Recher C, Ayel J, Laurent G, Mansat-De Mas V. “Tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibits hTERT gene expression in human myeloid normal and leukemic cells.” Blood 2005;106: 3200-3205.
4.Amsellem V, et al. “Telomere dysfunction causes sustained inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.” Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2011 Dec;184(12):1358-66.
5.Edo MD, Adres V. “Aging, telomeres, and atherosclerosis.” Review Cardiovasc Res 2005;66: 213- 221.
6.Benetos A, Okuda K, Lajemi M, Kimura M, Thomas F, et al. “Telomere length as an indicator of biological aging: the gender effect and relation with pulse pressure and pulse wave velocity.” Hypertension 2001;37: 381-385.
7.Benetos A, Gardner JP, Zureik M, Labat C, Xiaobin L, et al. “Short telomeres are associated with increased carotid atherosclerosis in hypertensive subjects.” Hypertension 2001;37: 381-385.
8.Lappe J, et. al. “Vitamin D and calcium supplementation reduces cancer risk.” Am. J. Clinical Nutrition 2007;85,6:1586-1591.
9.Richards, J Brent, et al, “Higher serum vitamin D concentrations are associated with longer leukocyte telomere length in women,” J Clin Nutr 2007; Vol. 86, No. 5, 1420-1425.
10.Zhu H, Guo D, Li K, Pedersen-White J, Stallmann-Jorgensen I, Huang Y, Parikh S, Liu K, Dong Y. “Increased telomerase activity and vitamin D supplementation …” Int J Obes. 2012;36(6):805-9.
11.Polidoro L, et. al. “Vitamin D Protects Human Endothelial Cells from H(2)O (2) Oxidant Injury Through the Mek/Erk-Sirt1 Axis Activation.” J Cardiovasc Transl Res. 2012.